{"title":"Ted Kooser","description":"\u003cp\u003eTed Kooser (born in Ames, Iowa) served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2004 to 2006 and is one of the most beloved American poets of the Great Plains. He worked for thirty-five years as an executive at Lincoln Benefit Life Company in Nebraska while writing poetry. He received his MA from the University of Nebraska. His collection \u003cem\u003eDelights \u0026amp; Shadows\u003c\/em\u003e (Copper Canyon, 2004) won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. He has received two NEA fellowships and a Pushcart Prize. His \u003cem\u003eAmerican Life in Poetry\u003c\/em\u003e newspaper column, which he began as Poet Laureate, reaches millions of readers weekly. He is Presidential Professor Emeritus at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"seven-skies-all-at-once","title":"Seven Skies All at Once","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"Kooser's picturesque poetry vividly shapes his living sky metaphors. . . A lofty concept and radiant illustrations will leave readers on cloud nine.\" --\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe skies are hanging their freshly washed--and sweepingly illustrated--clouds out to dry in Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Ted Kooser's celestial ode to an approaching rainstorm.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eOne sky unpins damp sheets of cirrus. Another wads cirrocumulus into a basket woven of sunbeams. Still others carry away armloads of altocumulus and drag moth-eaten gray blankets of stratus past. At last, a colossal cumulonimbus sweeps in, squeezing out the light to herald . . . rain! What emerges is a sky like a great green laundry basket with a rainbow for a handle. Full of wit and brilliant linguistic surprises, this poetic romp by former United States Poet Laureate Ted Kooser is as playfully theatrical as it is evocative. Matt Myers's dynamic artwork stages the weather with aplomb, capturing the distinct mood of each show-stopping sky and crafting a meteorological drama of epic proportions. Like a good, rousing rainstorm, \u003ci\u003eSeven Skies All at Once\u003c\/i\u003e calls eloquently on our senses, inviting us to pause and reflect on the ever-changing wonders all around.","brand":"Ted Kooser","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43793298948138,"sku":"9781536229004","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/0891\/6522\/files\/seven-skies-all-at-once-8495799.jpg?v=1762151429"},{"product_id":"winter-morning-walks-100-postcards-to-jim-harrison","title":"Winter Morning Walks: 100 Postcards to Jim Harrison","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom a Pulitzer Prize winner, a collection of poems originally sent on postcards to writer Jim Harrison\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In the late 1990s, when poet Ted Kooser was recovering from cancer surgery, he started sending postcards to his friend Jim Harrison, a novelist known for \u003ci\u003eLegends of the Fall\u003c\/i\u003e and numerous other books. On each postcard, he wrote a poem. Harrison did the same in return. In 2001, Kooser turned his half of the exchange into \u003ci\u003eWinter Morning Walks: 100 Postcards to Jim Harrison\u003c\/i\u003e, a collection of engaging, witty, clever, insightful poems that serve simultaneously as snapshots of a friendship and a view into a poet's daily observations.","brand":"Ted Kooser","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43793299013674,"sku":"9780887483363","price":15.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/0891\/6522\/files\/winter-morning-walks-100-postcards-to-jim-harrison-1855040.jpg?v=1762151428"},{"product_id":"poetry-home-repair-manual-practical-advice-for-beginning-poets","title":"Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice for Beginning Poets","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"No other poet seems better suited to represent the United States as its Laureate in this era than Ted Kooser, and \u003ci\u003eThe Poetry Home Repair Manual\u003c\/i\u003e should enhance his grip on our slumbering Republic.\"\u003c\/b\u003e--Larry Woiwode, Poet Laureate of North Dakota, in \u003ci\u003eNorth Dakota Quarterly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMuch more than a guidebook to writing and revising poems, this manual has all the comforts and merits of a long and enlightening conversation with a wise and patient old friend--a friend who is willing to share everything he's learned about the art he's spent a lifetime learning to execute so well.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTed Kooser has been writing and publishing poetry for more than forty years. In the pages of \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Poetry Home Repair Manual\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e, Kooser brings those decades of experience to bear. Here are tools and insights, the instructions (and warnings against instructions) that poets--aspiring or practicing--can use to hone their craft, perhaps into art. Using examples from his own rich literary oeuvre and from the work of a number of successful contemporary poets, the author schools us in the critical relationship between poet and reader, which is fundamental to what Kooser believes is poetry's ultimate purpose: to reach other people and touch their hearts.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ted Kooser","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43793299079210,"sku":"9780803259782","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/0891\/6522\/files\/poetry-home-repair-manual-practical-advice-for-beginning-poets-2437341.jpg?v=1762151428"},{"product_id":"raft","title":"Raft","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eDelightfully universal, \u003ci\u003eRaft \u003c\/i\u003eby Pulitzer Prize-winner Ted Kooser travels the Midwest landscape, attuned to life's shared experiences and emotions\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eillness, aging, beauty, and love.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eRaft\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eis our fourth collection of poetry from Pulitzer Prize-winner and former U.S. Poet Laureate, Ted Kooser. Open in his desire to write for the everyday reader, these poems maintain the open-handed and accessible style that thousands have come to love. Yet, deeply imagistic and metaphorically rich, \u003ci\u003eRaft\u003c\/i\u003e shows us that even the simplest of objects, the simplest of actions, can become a portal. A boy feeding a goldfish becomes a meditation on loneliness. Scraps of gauze open the door to a study on happiness. Both local and delightfully universal, \u003ci\u003eRaft\u003c\/i\u003e travels the Midwest landscape, attuned to the shared experiences and emotions of life--illness and aging, beauty and love. Some poems, nostalgia-wrapped, cradle elegies for lost family and friends. Adrift on life rafts of language, this book is a lesson in intentional observation, a celebration of the small, quiet wonders of life.","brand":"Ted Kooser","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43793299210282,"sku":"9781556597015","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/0891\/6522\/files\/raft-6715714.jpg?v=1762151372"},{"product_id":"delights-shadows","title":"Delights \u0026 Shadows","description":"Ted Kooser served as U.S. Poet Laureate and won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for \u003cem\u003eDelights and Shadows\u003c\/em\u003e","brand":"Ted Kooser","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43793299406890,"sku":"9781556592010","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/0891\/6522\/files\/delights-shadows-8859847.jpg?v=1762151371"},{"product_id":"marshmallow-clouds-two-poets-at-play-among-figures-of-speech","title":"Marshmallow Clouds: Two Poets at Play Among Figures of Speech","description":"\u003cb\u003eCelebrated poets Ted Kooser along with Connie Wanek, and illustrator Richard Jones, explore figures of speech in a spirited and magical way--and invite our imaginations out to play.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA freewheeling romp through the world of imagery and metaphor, this quietly startling collection of thirty poems, framed by the four elements, is about art and reality, fact and fancy. Look around: what do you see? A clown balancing a pie in a tree, or an empty nest perched on a leafless branch? As poet Connie Wanek alludes to in her afterword--a lively dialogue with former US Poet Laureate Ted Kooser--sometimes the simplest sights and sounds \"summon our imaginations\" and cry out to be clothed in the alchemical language of poetry. This compendium of the fleeting and unexpected turns the everyday--turtles, trees, and tadpoles; cow pies, lazy afternoons, and pillowy white marshmallows--into poetic gold. A brilliant and timeless collaboration that evokes both the mystery and grandeur of the natural world and the cozy, mundane moments of daily life, this exquisitely illustrated collection is the go-to gift book of the season for poetry fans of all ages.","brand":"Ted Kooser, Connie Wanek","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43793299472426,"sku":"9781536203035","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/0891\/6522\/files\/marshmallow-clouds-two-poets-at-play-among-figures-of-speech-8527103.jpg?v=1762151371"},{"product_id":"cotton-candy-poems-dipped-out-of-the-air","title":"Cotton Candy: Poems Dipped Out of the Air","description":"\u003cb\u003eFinalist for the 2023 Midwest Book Award \u003cbr\u003e Finalist for the 2023 Heartland Booksellers Award\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"Poems dipped out of the air\" describes the manner in which Ted Kooser composed the poems in \u003ci\u003eCotton Candy\u003c\/i\u003e, the result of his daily routine of getting up long before dawn, sitting with coffee, pen, and notebook, and writing whatever drifts into his mind. Whether those words and images are serious or just plain silly, Kooser tries not to censor himself. His objective is to catch whatever comes to him, to snatch it out of the air in words, rhythms, and cadences, the way a cotton candy vendor dips an airy puff out of a cloud of spun sugar and hands it to his customer. Poems written in fun and now shared with the reader, Kooser's playful and magical confections charm and delight.","brand":"Ted Kooser","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43793299800106,"sku":"9781496231291","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/0891\/6522\/files\/cotton-candy-poems-dipped-out-of-the-air-6393083.jpg?v=1762151371"},{"product_id":"kindest-regards-poems-selected-and-new","title":"Kindest Regards: Poems, Selected and New","description":"Four decades of poetry―and a generous selection of new work―make up this extraordinary collection by Pulitzer Prize winner Ted Kooser. Firmly rooted in the landscapes of the Midwest, Kooser's poetry succeeds in finding the emotional resonances within the ordinary. Kooser's language of quiet intensity trains itself on the intricacies of human relationships, as well as the animals and objects that make up our days. As \u003cem\u003ePoetry\u003c\/em\u003e magazine said of his work, \"Kooser documents the dignities, habits, and small griefs of daily life, our hunger for connection, our struggle to find balance.\"","brand":"Ted Kooser","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43793299865642,"sku":"9781556595349","price":22.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/0891\/6522\/files\/kindest-regards-poems-selected-and-new-8650486.jpg?v=1762151371"},{"product_id":"man-with-a-rake","title":"Man with a Rake","description":"\u003cp\u003eTed Kooser lives and writes on 62 acres of wooded hills and pasture in rural Nebraska with his wife, Kathleen Rutledge, a retired editor of the Lincoln Journal Star. None of their property is farmed and is instead left to an abundance of wildlife. For many years Kooser worked at a desk in the life insurance business, retired at 60, and for fifteen years taught poetry writing in the graduate program of the University of Nebraska. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHe is the author of fifteen books of poetry, five volumes of nonfiction, five children's picture books, and seventeen chapbooks and special editions. He served two terms as U.S. Poet Laureate and his 2004 collection of poems, Delights \u0026amp; Shadows, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Prior to the publication of A Man with a Rake, his most recent collection of poems is Red Stilts, from Copper Canyon Press. More about his life, his work, and his many honors can be found at www.tedkooser.net.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ted Kooser","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43793299931178,"sku":"9781734979176","price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/0891\/6522\/files\/man-with-a-rake-6132301.jpg?v=1762151371"},{"product_id":"valentines","title":"Valentines","description":"For Valentine's Day 1986, Ted Kooser wrote \"Pocket Poem\" and sent the tender, thoughtful composition to fifty women friends, starting an annual tradition that would persist for the next twenty-one years. Printed on postcards, the poems were mailed to a list of recipients that eventually grew to more than 2,500 women all over the United States. \u003ci\u003eValentines\u003c\/i\u003e collects Kooser's twenty-two years of Valentine's Day poems, complemented with illustrations by Robert Hanna and a new poem appearing for the first time. Kooser's valentine poems encompass all the facets of the holiday: the traditional hearts and candy, the brilliance and purity of love, the quiet beauty of friendship, and the bittersweetness of longing. Some of the poems use the word \u003ci\u003evalentine\u003c\/i\u003e, others do not, but there is never any doubt as to the purpose of Kooser's creations.","brand":"Ted Kooser","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43793299996714,"sku":"9780803217706","price":21.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/0891\/6522\/files\/valentines-4151238.jpg?v=1762151371"},{"product_id":"wheeling-year-a-poets-field-book","title":"Wheeling Year: A Poet's Field Book","description":"Ted Kooser sees a writer's workbooks as the stepping-stones on which a poet makes his way across the stream of experience toward a poem. Because those wobbly stones are only inches above the quotidian rush, what's jotted there has an immediacy that is intimate and close to life. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Kooser, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a former U.S. poet laureate, has filled scores of workbooks. \u003ci\u003eThe Wheeling Year\u003c\/i\u003e offers a sequence of contemplative prose observations about nature, place, and time arranged according to the calendar year. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Written by one of America's most beloved poets, this book is published in the year in which Kooser turns seventy-five, with sixty years of workbooks stretching behind him.","brand":"Ted Kooser","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43793300127786,"sku":"9780803249707","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/0891\/6522\/files\/wheeling-year-a-poets-field-book-6281310.jpg?v=1762151371"},{"product_id":"blizzard-voices","title":"Blizzard Voices","description":"2007 Book Sense Poetry Top Ten selection \u003cbr\u003e 2007 Midwest Booksellers' Choice Award for Poetry, honoring Tom Pohrt (Illustrator) \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e This book is a collection of poems recording the devastation unleashed on the Great Plains by the blizzard of January 12, 1888. \u003ci\u003eThe Blizzard Voices\u003c\/i\u003e is based on the actual reminiscences of the survivors as recorded in documents from the time and written reminiscences from years later. Here are the haunting voices of the men and women who were teaching school, working the land, and tending the house when the storm arrived and changed their lives forever.","brand":"Ted Kooser","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43793300193322,"sku":"9780803259638","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/0891\/6522\/files\/blizzard-voices-1175426.jpg?v=1762151370"},{"product_id":"weather-central","title":"Weather Central","description":"Ted Kooser's third book in the Pitt Poetry Series is a selection of poems published in literary journals over a ten year period by a writer whose work has been praised for its clarity and accessiblity, its mastery of figurative language, and its warmth and charm.","brand":"Ted Kooser","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43793300258858,"sku":"9780822955276","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/0891\/6522\/files\/weather-central-4763679.jpg?v=1762151371"},{"product_id":"flying-at-night-poems-1965-1985","title":"Flying At Night: Poems 1965-1985","description":"Named U.S. Poet Laureate for 2004-2006, Ted Kooser is one of America's masters of the short metaphorical poem. Dana Gioia has remarked that Kooser has written more perfect poems than any poet of his generation. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn Flying at Night: Poems 1965-1985, Kooser has selected poems from two of his earlier works, Sure Signs and One World at a Time (1985). Taken together or read one at a time, these poems clearly show why William Cole, writing in the Saturday Review, called Ted Kooser \"a wonderful poet,\" and why Peter Stitt, writing in the Georgia Review, proclaimed him \"a skilled and cunning writer. . . . An authentic 'poet of the American people.'\"","brand":"Ted Kooser","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43793300324394,"sku":"9780822958772","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/0891\/6522\/files\/flying-at-night-poems-1965-1985-2034092.jpg?v=1762151370"},{"product_id":"red-stilts-paperback","title":"Red Stilts (Paperback)","description":"\u003ci\u003eRed Stilts\u003c\/i\u003e finds Pulitzer Prize-winner and former U. S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser at the top of his imaginative and storytelling powers. Here are the richly metaphorical, imagistically masterful, clear and accessible poems for which he has become widely known. Kooser writes for an audience of everyday readers and believes poets \"need to write poetry that doesn't make people feel stupid.\" Each poem in \u003ci\u003eRed Stilts\u003c\/i\u003e strives to reveal the complex beauties of the ordinary, of the world that's right under our noses. Right under Kooser's nose is rural America, most specifically the Great Plains, with its isolated villages, struggling economy, hard-working people and multiple beauties that surpass everything wrecked, wrong, or in error.","brand":"Ted Kooser","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43793300389930,"sku":"9781556596490","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/0891\/6522\/files\/red-stilts-paperback-9414732.jpg?v=1762151371"},{"product_id":"braided-creek-a-conversation-in-poetry-expanded-anniversary-edition","title":"Braided Creek: A Conversation in Poetry: Expanded Anniversary Edition","description":"\u003cb\u003eIn her loving Foreword to this expanded anniversary edition, Naomi Shihab Nye writes \"\u003ci\u003eBraided Creek: A Conversation in Poetry \u003c\/i\u003eis one of the dearest, most appealing books ever published. These poems are tiny delicious American haiku affectionately exchanged between two friends... This slim volume acts as a palate-cleanser, a spirit-booster, a little rocket-ship of wonders.\"\u003c\/b\u003eWhile Ted Kooser and Jim Harrison were an unlikely pair to become friends, they shared an intimate correspondence of handwritten letters that often included new poems. After Kooser was diagnosed with cancer, Harrison sensed his friend's poetry becoming \"overwhelmingly vivid,\" and their friendship deepened through the exchange of brief poems that captured \"the essence of what [they] wanted to say to each other.\" After hundreds of poems were sent back and forth through the mail, they found this volume hidden within the stacks of envelopes and postcards.In her loving Foreword to this expanded anniversary edition, Naomi Shihab Nye writes \"\u003ci\u003eBraided Creek: A Conversation in Poetry\u003c\/i\u003e is one of the dearest, most appealing books ever published. These poems are tiny delicious American haiku affectionately exchanged between two friends... This slim volume acts as a palate-cleanser, a spirit-booster, a little rocket-ship of wonders.\"Wise, wry, and penetrating, these epigrammatic, aphoristic poems explore love and friendship, pausing to celebrate the natural world, aging, everyday things and scenes, and poetry itself. This expanded edition includes a dozen new poems, and when asked why none of the poems have attributions, one of the co-authors replied, \"This book is an assertion in favor of poetry and against credentials.\"","brand":"Ted KooserJim Harrison","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43793300848682,"sku":"9781556596797","price":22.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/0891\/6522\/files\/braided-creek-a-conversation-in-poetry-expanded-anniversary-edition-9168177.jpg?v=1762151370"},{"product_id":"delights-shadows-1","title":"Delights \u0026 Shadows","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Kooser is straightforward, possesses an American essence, is humble, gritty, ironic and has a gift for detail and a deceptive simplicity.\"--\u003ci\u003eSeattle Post-Intelligencer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis signed, limited edition celebrates the Pulitzer Prize-winning collection by former Poet Laureate Ted Kooser.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003ci\u003eDelights and Shadows\u003c\/i\u003e is one of the best-selling poetry books in America, and Ted Kooser--editor of the weekly column \"American Life in Poetry\"--is a beloved poet. While serving as poet laureate, he stated, \"I hope to interest more people in poetry. I hope to perform a service as a poet, giving people something they can use.\" Kooser certainly succeeded.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhile \u003ci\u003eDelights and Shadows\u003c\/i\u003e has been lavishly reviewed in major media throughout the country, reader responses about the book have poured into Copper Canyon Press. A reader from rural New York wrote, \"Kooser's tenth book of poems is a work of profound insight into the core of human existence and feeling.\" Another from Virginia wrote, \"An instantly attractive collection by a poet unknown to me, who sees remarkable things in everyday objects. Today I ordered five more of his previous books at a local store.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eTed Kooser\u003c\/b\u003e, author of thirteen books of poetry and nonfiction, is the former poet laureate of the United States. He lives in Nebraska.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ted Kooser","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44184704581674,"sku":"9781556592430","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/0891\/6522\/files\/delights-shadows-7807061.jpg?v=1774055348"}],"url":"https:\/\/thepoetryshop.com\/collections\/ted-kooser.oembed","provider":"The Poetry Shop LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}